


Overprotective Siblings - Unconventional Style

by Pixelatrix



Series: Unconventional Sequels, One-Shots and Alternate Chapters [18]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Family, Fluff, Kids, Multi, fluffy nonsense, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22720150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixelatrix/pseuds/Pixelatrix
Summary: Father-daughter bonding between Hackett and his oldest daughter.
Relationships: Steven Hackett/Zaeed Massani/Female Shepard
Series: Unconventional Sequels, One-Shots and Alternate Chapters [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/50377
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Overprotective Siblings - Unconventional Style

**Author's Note:**

> The tiniest of unconventional family drabbles. It's been ages since I wrote anything. I thought I'd dip my toes back in the water. Not 100% sure this fits the timeline right for when Hackett retires in the actual story....but I suppose it doesn't matter that much.  
I hope everyone enjoys it.
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos, subscriptions and comments.
> 
> Bioware Owns All, sadly.
> 
> Beta: CelticGrace & MissMeggo929

There were days being the highest-ranking officer left in the Alliance made Hackett exhausted beyond all comprehension. He left his office with his ears still ringing. Request after request, complaint after complaint, a non-stop litany of everything going wrong and right in the universe, all placed on his shoulders.

He’d allow himself to be flown at least part of the way home. God forbid the admiral have a moment to himself. On the worst days, he convinced the pilot park the shuttle at the end of the long driveway leading into home.

And he’d walk.

Slowly.

The ten-minute walk often allowed him the chance to clear his head.

Today was one of those days. He needed to retire. Fin and Zaeed had been on him for ages, but he kept putting him off.

The Alliance needed him. What would happen if things all fall apart? He wanted a world—a universe—safe for his three kids.

Sitting on a tree stump out of view of the house, Hackett dropped his head into his hands. He hadn’t felt this tired since the end of the reaper war. Not even the First Contact war had exhausted him this much.

Hell, he’d felt energized and ready to take on the world.

“Dad?”

He lifted his head to find Rowan hesitantly moving toward him. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

His seventeen-year-old daughter shrugged. “No?”

“Try again.” He got to his feet slowly and headed towards her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Do your mom and papa known you’re home?”

“Yes?”

“Rowan Finnegan. You’re usually a much better liar.” He chuckled when she grumbled at him for messing up her hair. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

She muttered something under her breath.

“Say that again? Out loud?”

“I threw a boy into the pool.” Rowan crossed her arms and glared up at him. “I regret nothing.”

“Of course, you don’t. “ He reminded himself, laughing when his kids misbehaved was a terrible way to handle parenting. Not that it stopped Zaeed. “Why’d you throw a boy into the pool?”

“He fucking deserved it.”

“Rowan.” Hackett flicked her lightly on the ear. “What have I said about language?”

“Yeah, but Papa curses all the time.”

“He’s an adult. And he winds up sleeping on the couch when he does it.” He tried to draw the conversation back to discovering what his daughter had done. “When you say a boy?”

“He was ten.”

“You threw a ten-year-old into a pool. What were you thinking?”

“He picked on Teagan.”

Hackett closed his eyes and counted to ten in his head. He went up to thirty when that didn’t work to calm the sudden rage in him. “Picked on Teagan how?”

“He made her cry.” Rowan still had her arms crossed. “Not sorry I did it.”

“Rowan.” He knew that he needed to reprimand her. She was seventeen and had no busy throwing a ten-year-old into a pool. “Tell me what happened from the beginning?”

“I’m the student assistant at the little twerps swimming class.”

“_Rowan_.”

She grinned unrepentantly at him. “Fine. I help Teagan’s little swimmer class. Why you decided she needed a class is beyond me. She hates school. She hates extracurricular activities, not involving her garden. And she’s the youngest and smallest kid.”

“Just get on with the story.”

“Fine, fine.” Rowan grumbled under her breath before continuing. “This little shit pushed her into the pool. So I returned the favour.”

“And?”

“I got sent home for calling him a little shit.” Rowan jutted her chin out, looking so much like a combination of Finnegan with Zaeed’s attitude that he had to laugh. “Dad.”

“And Teagan?”

“In the garden with Papa. I didn’t tell him what happened just that she’d had a rough day.” Rowan leaned into him when he wrapped his arm around his shoulder. “Still not sorry.”

“Next time, talk to the teachers, okay? Or message one of us—actually message your mother or me.” Hackett didn’t trust Zaaed to handle anything related to bullying and their kids well. “Not your papa.”

Rowan grinned mischievously at him. “I only tell papa when I want someone to get their ass kicked.”

“Why do I bother?” He shook his head and didn’t bother trying not to laugh. “Am I going to get a call from the school?”

“Probably.”

“Fine. Pretend you're grounded.” Hackett led her down the drive toward their house. He could always count on his kids to lift his mood. “And try not to get in any more trouble before you graduate.”


End file.
